


They'd Forgotten That

by lowlizah



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Established Daryl Dixon/Rick Grimes, Established Relationship, M/M, the now infamous tunnel scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-17
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-15 11:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13030527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lowlizah/pseuds/lowlizah
Summary: None of them could confidently say that they'd be living tomorrow; they'd forgotten that.





	They'd Forgotten That

**Author's Note:**

> This is garbage but it's my garbage. Grammar mistakes are my own as this work isn't beta read. Comments, kudos, bookmarks, and hits are appreciated.

From the moment Daryl's feet hit the floor of the tunnel, he started walking. The destruction of yet another home clenching his heart like a vice. He could hear the others dropping down behind him, passing down the guns and he heard Rosita's urgently hushed callings for Michonne but he kept walking. Finding their people was a relief that allowed his shoulders to sag for a moment. As he passed each one, Daryl cataloged the faces he saw, seeing who was there, who was missing, and who could be a wolf hiding amongst the sheep.

His feet carried him straight up to one of the women near a connecting chamber. She sat huddled with children around her but Daryl was focused on only one. As if sensing him, a blond curly head turned to show the cherub face of his Lil' Asskicker. She peered up at him before lifting her arms up; he scooped her up and gave the woman a nod before finding somewhere to sit down, holding the toddler close.

Judith's hand gripped his vest tight as she tucked her head under Daryl's chin. She was silent as always, only huffing out a sigh as she snuggled closer to him and his arms tightened around her. One of the ladies had once mentioned how Judith didn't talk. Rick had wondered if they should've been worried but Carol had told them not to that Judith was fine given the situation. Daryl thought back to that book he had secreted away and remembered reading something along the lines of delayed milestones being normal for children of abuse or trauma.

And didn't that hurt like a bitch to share with Rick. Their girly was perfect given the world she was being raised in. Everything they'd been through, were going through, had already left it's ugly marks on her. He pressed a kiss to her head before looking up and finding a kid he'd never seen. Before he could even respond, he heard Carl.

"He's a friend," Carl whispered with a laborious breath and covered in sweat. "He's alright; I brought him because he belongs with us."

Daryl stared at Carl who stared back. Carl broke their silent conversation first, his gaze dropping down giving Daryl the answer to the question he had silently asked with a stare. He couldn't help the shuddered breath that left him, nor the agony that welled up inside him that made him want to scream or cry or find another crossroads to drop down on and wait for an ending to find him again.

Carl looked up then and gave a small smile. He was at peace with this outcome, resolved to his unfair fate. He looked at Judith before looking back at Daryl who could do nothing more than nod. Of course he'd take care of her. Of course he'd make sure she knew how amazing and incredible her brother is... was... is...

Tears spilled over and Daryl looked down, pressing his lips to Judith's head as guilt and anger broiled inside him. He almost wanted to ask how but did that really matter? Death had always been an inevitability but reality now, was death came for you in one of two ways, by walkers or by enemies that were very much human. How you got bit was just a story that went along with why you got bit, which was always a result of your decision to undertake a particular action. Neither mattered because it could be tracked back to Z wouldn't of happened if Y didn't happen which was a result of X which was caused by W and so on. What mattered was that the end result of... a walker bite. 

Beth had once said that Daryl would be the last man standing, Daryl had thought that it would be the kid that had been there from the start. But that kid wasn't much of a kid anymore, he no longer relied on the adults to protect him, keep him surviving. Carl went and became an adult that had to keep himself alive and like everyone from their past, what could happen to any of them at any moment, chance got him. 

Maybe none of them from the old world would survive, should survive. Maybe this world belonged to those born into it, nurtured as toddlers in it, reared in it as children that grew into adults that could accept their inevitable death from a bite as easily as a kid accepted their inevitable death from cancer in the old world. It had always been the adults that had a harder time accepting death.

Daryl didn't look up when he heard Rick walking down the tunnel. His hand brushing Daryl's head and Judith's shoulder before moving on down. The leader knowing Judith could not be in safer hands than if she were in his own. 

Dwight's and Tara's words reared up in his head. This wasn't their fault. His goal had been to force the Saviors to have to defend. Breaking their walls and letting walkers pour into their haven forced a deviation of their attention from how to get out to how to protect themselves. Eugene had made a two front assault into one that led to the Saviors freedom. 

More Z, X, Y though.

Seeing the bite didn't make it anymore real but the devastation on Rick's face had Daryl's heart ticking up and his stomach turning, remembering once upon not so long ago. Rick and Michonne sat there on either side of Carl for a while, sobs wracking Michonne. 

After some time Rick got up and turned away, as if turning his back on reality could somehow change it and Daryl could see the thread thinning. Michonne tried to take up Carl's attention while Daryl rose and pressed himself to Rick, Judith between them. Trying to force the man to feel them both while at the same time trying to prevent him from leaving in his current state. 

"Rick?" Daryl called trailed by Judith's whimper.

It was like a rubber band snapping seeing Rick's eyes clear and conciousness descend. Rick's arms wrapped around Daryl and pulled him in. "I won't survive," he breathed.

"You will," Daryl whispered back, "For her, for all of us, for him." 

For me, he thought but wasn't selfish enough to say out loud.

Daryl's head fell on Rick's shoulder and he let the tears fall to be soaked up by Rick's shirt. "We need you. Please don't leave us." And really what more could he say? He would be the only one left. Daryl and Judith needed Rick. Judith had to know about Lori and about Shane because neither deserved to to forgotten forever. 

Daryl and Carol could tell her about the very beginning but only Rick could tell her about the whole journey from then to here. There were stories that Judith needed to hear about her mother, about Shane, about Dale, about Glenn, and Sophia, and Andrea, and T-Dog, Tyrese, Bob, and all of their family that were gone... About Carl.Stories that only Rick knew.

"The world you wanted to show him," Daryl breathed, "show it to Lil' Asskicker. Show it to Glenn's baby. Show it to your family. Show it to me. Please Rick show it to us."

Rick hugged Daryl tight, Judith shielded between them. He pressed his lips first to Daryl's head then to Judith's, reminding himself that they were very much alive. His eyes found Carl's and the boy just smiled. 

None of them could confidently say that they'd be living tomorrow; they'd forgotten that.


End file.
